


It's For Science!

by Dragonsquill (dragonsquill)



Category: The Hobbit (Jackson Movies), The Hobbit - All Media Types
Genre: College AU, Durincest, Fiki, Gift, Humor, Inspired by Art, M/M, Modern AU, modern dwarves
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2017-10-19
Updated: 2017-10-21
Packaged: 2019-01-20 01:23:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 2
Words: 1,857
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12422130
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/dragonsquill/pseuds/Dragonsquill
Summary: For the Durin's Day Gift Exchange and inspired by calicoscoloredpencils on tumblr.  This is a silly modern college AU with the boys.  Kili has a major crush and also a major project coming up.  He isn't entirely certain who he wants to make the center of his art portfolio until he sees a certain someone without a certain piece of clothing...and then it all comes together.





	1. Chapter 1

They met when Kili was 7 and Fili was 11 and it was love at first sight. Well…from Kili’s point of view. From Fili’s, it was Annoying Little Kid They Want Me to Watch at first sight, but Kili knew, deep in his heart, that one day Fili would learn that he wasn’t an annoying little kid who needed watching after all. One day, Fili would learn that Kili was the destined love of his life, and that anyone else he might date (as he did, a little, in high school), was only practice for the day he realized Kili was the Dwarf for him.

They were cousins of the once-removed variety, and their mothers were the best of friends, Kili and Fili saw a great deal of each other in their childhoods. This was, for Kili, both a blessing and a curse. Fili was a warm and friendly older cousin, if a bit overprotective and given to teasing. However, he couldn’t avoid the constant reminder that he was the next-to-baby cousin (Mahal bless Gimli for being even younger), and that Fili was older and more mature and say Kili as a kiddo he occasionally spent time with in exchange for cold, hard cash. 

It could be very frustrating, trying to prove to the love of his life that he was deserving of affection when said love was a foot taller and running around with dwarves his own age.

That frustration, however, was nothing compared to the pitiful heartache that hit Kili at the age of 14, when his love graduated from highs chool and promptly moved across the country to Erebor University, only to be seen at holidays for the next four years, and sometimes not even then. Kili’s heart, though strong and filled with friends, activities, and occasional emails from his elusive cousin, was just a little bit broken to have his Fili so far away.

So, of course, Kili made absolutely sure that he was accepted into Erebor High’s art program, and even earned a scholarship for their competitive archery team to seal the deal. He was going to be a freshman as Fili, always the overachiever, became his postgraduate degree. They wouldn’t have any classes together, but at least they’d be in the same _town_ , on the same _campus_ and practically in the same _age bracket_. 

Kili’s heart was ready! And so was his body, but that wasn’t very classy to think about, so he tried to set it aside.

 

Freshmen and postgraduate students might as well live on opposite sides of the country.

They didn’t even live on the same part of campus, and with the two of them pursuing different majors (art for Kili, political science for Fili) and extracurricular interests (archery and swordplay with a side trip to blacksmithing, respectively), Kili didn’t manage to clap eyes on his cousin for the entire first two months of school. There were emails and messages, of course, with each promising the other that they’d get together “as soon as there was time,” only to never have a time come up, but they never managed so much as a meeting at a café. 

Kili reconsidered his decision to take extra classes over the regular load in a bid to catch up with Fili as quickly as possible. He hadn’t considered that it wouldn’t mean seeing Fili at all!

A great deal of sulking followed which his new roommate, Ori, took in apparent stride. He’d learned early on that Kili’s sulking face, which looked more murderous than broody, didn’t mean upcoming bodily harm, and left Kili to his own devices.

Kili was beginning to despair, an emotion at odds with his naturally optimistic nature, when something truly amazing happened:

He was given an assignment in his life drawing class.

And everything changed.

 

The assignment was to draw a person – one person – in a variety of poses and activities, a study in body language as well as life drawing and the drape of fabric, the texture of hair...everything that makes a person an individual. While everyone else in the class worried and talked over whom they would choose as their subject, Kili was grinning and pulling out his phone.

::Know you're busy:: he texted, ::but want to ask you about something for class. I'll come to you!::

::I stink:: came the quick reply.

Kili frowned at this piece of information. ::You do?:: How dare Fili insult the love of Kili's love this way!

::Definitely. Been practicing in the hot sun all afternoon. But you're welcome to come out to the field – bring nose plugs.::

Kili grinned. Literal stinking he could deal with. That was the result of hard work, and not an insult against the love of his life. ::On my way!:: he typed back. He grabbed his small easel and pencil box, took once last look at himself in one of the mirrors kept in the studio for self-portraits (looking _nice_ ), and took off at a fast trot in the direction of the field where he knew the swordplay teams trained. Not that he'd gone out there hoping to see Fili...a...number of times. Because he wasn't pitiful or anything. He wasn't going to stalk all over campus, trying to catch of glimpse of his cousin. He had only happened to be in various places where Fili might be, only to catch a glimpse here and there as Fili hurried from place to place.

He took a deep breath. Fili was going to be there today. He said he was. And when Fili said something, you could take it as fact. He was completely trustworthy. It was one of his finest features.

Trying to slow his pounding heart, Kili hopped over the old-fashioned stile and walked toward the ancient ring not terribly far from where his own archery team practiced. He could be cool. He could be collected. He could be adult and sexy and desirable and strong and-

And.

And Fili-

Fili was -

Fili was shirtless, and sweat-soaked, and when had he pierced-was that _gold_ all hidden among a trail of honey-colored hair and-

He turned.

He turned, and his brows drew together and his lips curved into a smile and Kili made a somehow low-pitched squeaking noise that he would deny until his dying day.

“Kili!” The grin spread, and was he leaning over and were his pants loose and was-

Okay, maybe he couldn't play it cool.

Maybe Fili was too gorgeous. And sweaty. And-

Oh yes. This he was going to draw like Mahal's very life depended on it! This deserved to be _art_!

“Fili!” he said back, and if he beamed foolishly, well. Who wouldn't faced with taught muscle and a thick waist and curls and-

Well.

And _Fili_?


	2. Chapter 2

The first picture he drew was all warm skin and solid muscle and wild blond hair and that flash of a grin that should probably be called a smirk. His teacher approved of it and asked who the model was. “My cousin,” Kili replied with genuine affection and a heavy dose of possessiveness, “Fili.”

“He's a good subject, very much a paragon of the modern dwarven aesthetic,” Professor Baggins told him approvingly. 

“He means,” Professor Bofur added cheerfully, “that your model is hot, and he approves the choice.”

Baggins gave Bofur the stink-eye, but Bofur only grinned back. Many a student quailed when Baggins' eyes flashed and his nose twitched, but Bofur was immune. It was a talent Kili wouldn't mind having one day. 

“Our next project,” Baggins said, ignoring his colleague who was, as he sometimes did, lolling around the room during his free hour and being a pest, “will be a profile.”

Baggins went on to explain, but Kili was already planning his next work. A profile was perfection, because Fili's was the finest in all of Ered Luin and now, of course, in all of Erebor. Yes, a profile would do very nicely indeed.

Now, he just needed to seek Fili out again-

“Now remember,” Baggins said as bags were packed and Kili managed to stop daydreaming about Fili's perfect, aristocratic nose, “don't focus on posed work. We find the truth of a person when they are unaware – when they are being themselves, and not a force for a camera.”

Kili frowned. He couldn't talk to Fili if he was drawing in secret.

Shoot.

 

Ori, when informed of the series of events herein at a later date, stated that this was the beginning of “Kili's stalking phase.”

“It was not!” Kili argued vehemently. “This was for ART!”

“Art,” Ori shot back “And that's why his shirt's off again?”

Kili looked fondly down at the picture in his hands. “It was hot,” he said, and ran his fingers along the outline of muscled arms. 

“He could have set his chest hair on fire!”

Kili's eyes widened and he pressed the drawing protectively to his chest. “Never!”

Ori rolled his eyes. “Kili, you don't go shirtless in a _forge_.”

“Maybe _you_ don't, but you're not as badass as my Fili, are you?” Kili reposted, and that was the end of the conversation because Kili wisely beat a hasty retreat before Ori could say anything more.

After all, he...had a point.

It _was_ hot that day, unseasonably so for Erebor, when Kili slinked sneakily to the forges where Fili would be working on his own form of art. Fili had grown up learning blacksmithing from their shared Uncle/Cousin/Removed/Whatever Thorin, just as Kili had, but he had taken to it in a way Kili hadn't. His interest continued at Erebor, the only university to still teach the ancient art with modern techniques. But unseasonable hotness didn't explain why, when he arrived, his Fili was banging a piece of metal with gloves to protect his hands and absolutely nothing to protect his precious nipples and treasure trail. 

There was badass, and then there was foolish.

Kili, ever loyal, decided to call this “badass.”

 _In secret_ he reminded himself, and attempted to make himself look smaller as he circled the area and settled with his portable easel beside a handy bush. _natural_. 

Natural Fili was the best Fili anyway. Endlessly kind, a bit arrogant, fun, and clever. He'd (almost) always been willing to include his little cousin on minor adventures around Ered Luin :camping trips, treasure hunts, hunting expeditions. Not the sort of brat most older family members were at all, and so easy to fall for. Drawing him while he was smithing would be a way to show his artistic side, as well as the strength still inherent to their dwarven race.

Grinning to himself, Kili looked up.

And his breath completely abandoned him.

Fili wasn't smithing anymore. He was standing with machete at his side, his eyes fierce, his hair a tangle. He looked like their ancient ancestors, caught by artists in paint and stone. They were descendants of kings, and Fili had never looked more noble and protective than in that moment.

Kili's pencils practically danced across the paper in a desperate attempt to show the world this proud, arrogant, protective son of kings.


End file.
